What a wonderful example of the power of team spirit!
The Swiss team sends the French team home. Bet 10€? Congratulations! 400€ gained!
What happens afterwards?
The Swiss team celebrates as a team. Even on the pitch after the final whistle, the joy of togetherness is evident: closeness, embrace, expression of all emotions. After 3 hours of hard work together, they enjoy each other’s company.
The French leave the pitch with faces of individual horror, frustration and incomprehension. The better individual players are defeated by the stronger team. In the end, magically, even in the individual goalkeeper-scorer duel. How was that possible? What happened here?
The game has been commented on in detail. Here’s just an essential and team-psychological one: complacent French superstars wait stolidly for the one brilliant situation. After all, they only need one. But what happens is that they concede the first goal. Oops! Well, there’s still plenty of time. Then a penalty, but not converted: Did the scorer not believe it either: 2:0 against the world champions?
Now the French show their capacity
The French turn on the turbo and show what they can do. 2 goals with verve and technical brilliance. The Swiss are dismayed – but soon wake up again. But another setback: Pogba conjures up an unstoppable shot to make it 3:1. He then poses in the mega-CR7 pose of the real soccer god. “Well, we’ve got that in the bag – as expected”. Vive la self-importance.
But the Swiss look for their chance with fresh energy and find it. Equalizer in the last minute. Now the world champions’ big pros are sagging again. No more goals in extra time either. The effect of team leader Granit Xhaka is unmistakable: only the Swiss stand together in a circle before the game starts again. And like a thunderbird, he inspires his team-mates with belief in their own chances and confidence in their exhausted bodies.
Bravo
and many thanks to you Swiss. You have shown us how to win: Never ever give up! Believe in your chance! Don’t freeze in front of Goliath, but understand his weaknesses and play your game!
And us? We finally got to experience soccer again! Fascinated by the interplay of excellent play and enthusiastic spectators. We suffer with them, cheer them on and give them strength. Are we just watching here? What can we learn for our own teamwork with the highest chances of success?
And the Germans?
Today I also recovered from the German team’s game. You can’t win if you’re thinking primarily about elimination and want to avoid every mistake. That’s exactly what happens. Hello media, you live on fear-filled scenarios! Think! The Swiss team simply dealt with negativity in a different way: ignore it and show it to everyone.
And one more thing – not just because of political correctness: the Swiss team is multicultural. It is not the individual class tainted by complacency that we Western cultures tend to display that brings the expected results: This team, along with its coach, is a melting pot of different provenances, where an unsaturated, rousing will to succeed is probably epigenetic in some. There is no room for complacency, airs and graces and an oversized ego. A paradigm for our time!
Eckhard Schölzel
What has impressed you most about living and working together?
